Knox flies home as murdered student’s family backs appeal

Less than 24 hours after her conviction was dramatically quashed by an Italian court, Knox boarded a British Airways flight from Rome to Seattle, via London’s Heathrow Airport.

She was scheduled to land in her home city at about 12.30am UK time, accompanied by her family who supported her throughout her time in jail for the killing of Miss Kercher, a Leeds University student.

A spokesman has said the Knox family would hold a news conference at the airport after their plane lands at Seattle, but it was not clear if Knox would speak.

Her first words following her acquittal on Monday were revealed in a letter to the Italy-US Foundation, an organisation which championed her cause.

Thanking Italians “who shared my suffering and helped me survive with hope”, she wrote: “Those who wrote, those who defended me, those who were close, those who prayed for me – I love you, Amanda.”

Knox’s Italian ex-boyfriend and co-accused, Raffaele Sollecito, who was also cleared on appeal, declined to appear in public after he returned to his home near Bari before dawn yesterday.

Sollecito’s father Francesco said his son was “trying to recover himself”. Mr Sollecito snr added, “He is going around touching things, as if he is a child who needs to take back the things of his life, to acquire forgotten elements.”

Knox, 24, and Sollecito, 27, had served almost four years in prison for the murder of Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, Surrey, whose semi-naked body was found on November 2, 2007.

Rudy Guede, 24, a small-time drug dealer from the Ivory Coast, has been convicted of Miss Kercher’s murder and sexual violence.

He is serving a 16-year jail term.

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